Setting Up Positive Norms in Math Class

Prompting me to think about my Numeracy Programme.

Reflection - Week 4 Term 1

What an exciting week - evacuations, observations and too little time!

We have almost completed all of our assessments and I have finally found the time to catch up those students who were absent or out of class. It is very difficult to meet all of the students needs when you often don't have a full class and you are trying to catchup those who missed out - this is something that I will need to work on managing.

I have found a lot of areas through the assessment of the students in my class that there are a lot of areas (especially in writing) that need addressing. In the next week or so I am going to look at establishing more groups and beginning to address these needs.

Keeping calm seemed to be a theme that stood out for me this week. Whether it be in my observation with Gail Loane (where I received some very useful feed forward) or during the impromptu evacuation (where we all had not much idea of what was going on) I have learnt that it is important to keep calm and not to show the students or others that you may not have a clue what you are doing.

This week the students began setting up their own individual blogs. This was quite a challenging session for me as I am only just getting to know how to use blogger myself. I think that this will be an area where I am going to learn a lot from the students as when they explore and discover they will find things out that they are able to teach myself and others within the class. This is a good opportunity for me to give some responsibility to the Year 8 students, allowing them the chance to take more of a leadership role and to help the Year 7's.

I still feel that a lot of the lessons that I am planning are too much work for the blocks of time that are available. So one of my goals for next week will be to keep things simple and to teach a small section of a topic well.

Next week will be a week of a lot of professional development through the First Aid course and a trip to Takapuna Normal School, so I am looking forward to learning as much as possible.

Guided Writing - Observed by Gail Loane

Wednesday 24th February 2016

Reflection - Week 3 Term 1

This week has been a challenging first full five day week at school.

During this week I feel that my class have been pushing the boundaries a lot more than they did in the first two weeks of the term. I have found myself having to be very firm and stick to the routines and management systems that I have put in place.

It was fantastic to get the opportunity to observe both Gail Loane (Literacy Expert) and my tutor teacher Matthew Cameron (PYP Expert) earlier this week. I gained a great deal from these observations in terms of the way to structure a lesson and on how to set the students up for success. I am looking forward to having Gail observe me teach a Literacy lesson to my class next week.

The Meet The Teacher Evening was on Thursday this week (which I was very nervous about as it was my first one in the Berkley style) however I managed to make it through the evening in one piece! We had to do a presentation in front of the parents from Te Aroha team. In this presentation we addressed mostly admin with the parents (I was required to speak about Teaming, Promotions, Room 13/Learning Centre time and Uniforms). Once back in my own classroom I delivered a short presentation to the parents about who I am and the way that I work. I managed to answer some questions on the spot to do with BYOD @ Berkley, IB PYP, Assessments and Groupings. It was fantastic to meet the parents and get their feedback on how their children were feeling about the start of the year and also to gain some extra information from them about their children that was not passed on through the folders of information from their previous schools. Overall I feel that it was a very successful evening!

This week was also a first for me in terms of teaching Teaming - Transdisciplinary Skills. It was really great to take all four of the groups at some point during the week and start to get to know some of the other students in Te Aroha team. The lesson that we have collaboratively planned for this area are quite substantial so I have found this week that one of the session may stretch out to two sessions and that I need to be prepared for this.

We also had our first Science Lab sessions this week which the students and I really enjoyed. It was great to see specialist teacher Greta Dromgool in action. She is so knowledgable in her field and I know I am going to learn a great deal from her this year.

Matthew Cameron Observation - Tuesday 16th February 2016

DEAR and UOI Lesson

DEAR

·      Students all quietly reading (books and devices).

·      Used this time to organise Maths textbooks/grouping with certain students.

UOI

·      Students straight into writing the date.

·      Look back at the previous piece of unit work – When did we do that last piece of work? What would be a good thing to do before we start? Make connections between what was done in this lesson and the last lesson.

·      Look back at Community brainstorms – J how did you define what a community was? Took ideas from different students.

·      Discussed other questions – Feedback from students. Each student builds on the last students idea.

·      Explains that we are going to go deeper into how we actively contribute to our community over the next few days – Uses Berkley example (Kapa Haka, Orchestra, Year 9) Puts forward idea of students running clubs/promotions and offers help with this. Makes the idea mean something to the students.

·      Where do you think we are going next with this UOI? Encourages students to look back at the lines of inquiry and really think about the Central Idea. Encourages students to get involved in their group discussions and models group etiquette (listening, speaking, looking). Gets students to feedback.

·      Communities how are they diverse, why are they diverse.

·      Explains task before handing out paper. (Fold into 3 equal columns) Repeats instruction and models. Gets students to hand out resources.

·      Write the WALT in the top left hand corner: WALT - Explore the characteristics of different communities. Interesting that waits to introduce the WALT until now rather than at the start. Allows the students to discover where they think the inquiry is going first.

·      Models on IWB. Labels section RURAL, URBAN, SUBURBAN. Asks the students to put these words into an NZ context (Country, City, Town)

·      Gives personal anecdote and brings in the idea of stereotypes. Asks students to explain what they think this means and give explains.

·      Waits until all are quiet. Uses ‘Turituri’

·      Which of these 3 do you identify with? Which do you associate most with? What is it about that community? Links back to own personal example.

·      Gives quiet reflection time (1.5 minutes). Allows time to think individually before heading straight into discussion.

·      Moves into discussion and encourages students to ask each other which they associate with and why. (approx. 2-3 mins)

·      Asks to contribute back about someone else from their table. Shows the students that it is important to listen to one another. Picks out key words and questions for more detail.

·      Explains task – In your own way demonstrate your understanding of the characteristics of each of these areas. Allows students to write/draw, leaves it up to them to decide.

·      Three different lenses to put on – links to race horse blinkers. 'The Learning Lense'.

·      Define:

-       How do these people live?

-       What do these people do for work?

-       What do these people do for entertainment?

-       What are the schools like?

·      Introduce the task and then sets time period (30 mins including discussions)

·      Are there any questions? Ensures 100% understanding of the task before beginning.

·      Stops students part way through and praises discussion. Gives amount of time left to complete the task. How do you know you are going to be successful? This encourages the students to manage their time wisely and decide whether to carry on with discussion or limit it to complete the task.

·      Checks in with students as they carry out the task.

·      Take up the challenge and work silently for the last part of the lesson – Put a sock in it (Look at origins)

Questions to finish the lesson with:

The big idea I took away from today was…

If I had to explain to my parents…

Gail Loane Observation - Monday 15th Febraury 2016

Guided Writing - Foul Shot

Circle formation.

Handed out exemplar- what type of writing is it?
Poetry- why?
The way it is set up- goes through what each part of the poem is- elicits prior knowledge around stanzas, sentence structure.

What else do we expect from poetry?

Lots of- think pair share.

Gail reads out poem- follow with your eyes.

What sport is it?
Show me the word or line that tell us it is that sport.

-cricket- is there any information in there that tells us it isn't cricket.

Going for 100% understanding- going through the poem line by line. Checking for understanding.

Put a star by the ball- this is where the action starts.

Student acts out the poem.



If we were to do what Edwin A Hoey has done, which is take a moment in time and create a poem, what do we need to do.
What makes up each line?

Tell us what he is doing.
Verbs-actions
Underline the action words.

Success criteria - Created with the students.

Each line has an action.
Each line starts with a capital letter.
No weasel words- Only the most important/necessary words.

-What kinds of words are not in there? So what kind of words are in there?

Choose a sport or activity
Goes around each student and gets them to say aloud their sport or activity.

Teacher shares a personal experience and demonstrates their 10 seconds of action.

Teacher gifts students languages as she speaks- eases into the water, springs...

In pairs, students act out their 10 seconds.

Back into circle, one student shares their action and class adds language to their movement.

What's your first line?
Students say their first line out loud.

After Lesson Discussion:

·      Structure is effective for all different texts.

·      Didn’t share what the text was – allowed the students to come up with this on their own.

·      Always building up knowledge. Will build up more knowledge about poems over the term. What does this text offer?

·      Make it a discovery. Make the students detectives.

·      Address students current needs, e.g. spelling, through their writing everyday – next steps. Group common misconceptions for taking groups (Could be at the beginning of a Literacy session).

·      Spelling – SpellWrite and Spelling Under Scrutiny.

·      Tutorials – two groups per day. Can sometimes pull back a group even while all others are writing.

Honeycombs for writing.

·      Snippets of My Summer – I felt, I wondered, I noticed. Wanting students to build up their own writing possibilities (Writer’s Eyes). Creating independence.

·      Children need to come up with their own purposes

·      Three/Four quick pieces and then students choose which to go back to and complete.

·      No explicit LO given but talked about right through.

·      Not genre driven.

·      Often what is not expected is what we are going to learn. E.g. simile in an informative text – Why has the author used this? What effect does it have?

·      It is about getting students to discover (pairs) what you want them to learn.

·      Always check in. Could give overnight for them to think of ideas.

·      Visualisation – Present tense (Where are you? What are you doing?)

·      If you are using narrative you will pick one thing that you will draw out. E.g. the use of dialogue without said.

·      The text often dictates what you are going to do. Lead children to what you are looking for – they will get better at this.

1.  Starting Point

-       Context e.g. summer, UOI, ANZAC (What is it that I want them to know? What AO’s does it link to?)

-       Curriculum (How am I going to use Reading and Writing to access this?)

-       Student Need

2.  What do I want them to do?

- e.g. poem about a sport.

Dr Bill Rogers - Tactical Ignoring: Addressing the issue

Dr Bill Rogers - Ensuring a settled and focused class

Summary Evaluation of PYP in New Zealand

An interesting read.

Reflection - Week 2 Term 1

Week 2 has flown by. I feel that I am starting to get the hang of most of the routines at Berkley.

Most of this week has been spent assessing the students (carrying out a Basic Facts Assessment, IKAN 2, GAP Spelling and also some Gloss Testing). After marking these assessments I am beginning to get a good picture as to where the students are at and can now begin to organise them into teaching groups. Following further assessments in Week 3 I should have a very clear picture and be able to begin planning more to individual student needs.

As far as my classroom environment is concerned I feel that this week I have been able to set clear boundaries for my class in terms of what sort of behaviour and the standard of work that is expected. This is an area that I think I will need to be quite tough on over the next few weeks. The physical environment in my classroom is starts to take shape also. I have now added a display for our UOI1 topic and for the Inquiry Cycle. I am hoping in the next week that I am able to put up the students completed tote-tray labels and writer's frames containing their first piece of published writing. I feel that these things will help the students feel more at home in the classroom as they would have each contributed to a part of it.

An issue that I have come up against is that some of the students are struggling to complete their work within the set time period whilst others are flying through the work so this is something that I need to think about. I need to come up with a strategy to help those who are slightly slower and also a way that students who finish their work early know what to do without having to come to me.

Now that all of the students have their stationery and all of their books are labelled and put into boxes  (to aid with organisation and marking) we will be able to get into some proper Literacy and Numeracy next week. I have arranged for each of the students to have their own Morning Book as in the first week they were hanging about in the morning and found it difficult to settle during roll time. Having a Morning Task for the students to record in their Morning Book each morning means that they have a purpose as soon as the get into the classroom and they know to settle and get on to the set task straight away. We will begin using these books next week and I will then reflect on how they are working.

Every kid needs a champion - Rita Pierson

Inspiration to start off the year.

Reflection Week 1 Term 1 2016

I survived week 1!

It was fantastic to finally meet and get to know my lovely year 7 and 8 students this week after so much preparation and time put into planning and organising my classroom. They seem like a kind and studious group of children so I think that we a going to have a wonderful year together.

This week has been quite a busy and overwhelming week for me. There has been a lot of information to take in and also lots of admin and many forms etc. to collect and give out within class. This has required me to rethink organisation of my classroom environment and also of my daily routine. I have allocated classroom monitors and made wall charts which will hopefully help to cut down on the time that I spend checking children's agenda books at the beginning and the end of each day. It has also been challenging with the children not having their stationery for this first week as it has made it difficult to begin any recorded work.

I have learnt this week that it is important to be flexible and that things can change at any moment. Things that you have planned may get pushed aside by a meeting or another lesson and you may have to teach your planned lesson at another point in time. On the other hand you may have thought that there was an assembly or team game planned and this may fall through at the last minute meaning that you need to have a lesson up your sleeve to be able to teach on the spot. This has shown me how I need to be organised but I also need to be able to be willing to let things carry over to the next day if need be.

I am still coming to grips with the PYP curriculum however I am looking forward to really getting into our first UOI when the children all have their stationery. My team has been very helpful and I have already gained so much knowledge from them in the area of inquiry so I am very thankful that they are there to help me understand this new way of teaching.

I am looking forward to having a more complete week next week and to have more to assess the students in my class so that I am able to establish reading, writing and numeracy groups for the coming weeks. I have already identified a few students within my class that will require some extra guidance (especially in literacy) so I am going to ask my colleagues about specific strategies I can use to best meet the needs of these children and help them to improve.